Construction Lesson Plan for Preschool

Construction is a fascinating topic for preschool aged students. This lesson plan can be adapted for small groups, whole classrooms, and home school settings. This set of activities is especially engaging when there is a construction zone nearby.

Literary Connection

Read a version of "The Three Little Pigs" to your students. Bring in a couple of bricks, a few sticks, and a handful of straw so students can see why bricks are the strongest material.

Teach students the verbs related to construction with this version of "So Early in the Morning":

This is the way we pound the nails, pound the nails, pound the nails,

This is the way we pound the nails, so early in the morning.

This is the way we saw the wood...

This is the way we paint the walls...

This is the way we stack the bricks...

Art Connections

Show students a sample of a blueprint. Give them blue paper, white colored pencils and crayons, and rulers and let them create blueprints of their own.

Let students glue popsicle sticks to a paper in the shape of a house. They can add details like doors, landscaping, fences, and windows with markers and crayons.

Active and Exploratory Play

Fill the sandbox with construction toys, such as front loaders, dump trucks, cement mixers, bulldozers, and excavators.

Set up a construction zone in the play area. Section it off with orange cones. Provide blocks, Legos, a tool bench, construction vehicles, and Lincoln logs.

Give students paint rollers and paint brushes and provide buckets and pans of water. Let them "paint" the outside of their classroom building or fence with water.

Math Connection

Cut out squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles from construction paper or cardstock. Trace the shapes onto paper to form houses, skyscrapers, and buildings. Let students match the construction paper shapes to the traced shapes.

Snacktime

Give students graham crackers, marshmallows, and crackers as building materials and peanut butter, and cream cheese as mortar to hold the materials together. Students can use clean popsicle sticks for their tools. Let students build houses and towers with their building materials. Check for food allergies before beginning the activity.

Community Involvement

Invite a construction worker or contractor to come and explain his job, how homes are build, and what different jobs there are on a construction site. If there is a nearby construction site, walk the class over to observe the building process.